A staple of the British countryside, Lords and Ladies are a pretty interesting species to get to know. However, don’t eat it. Just don’t. I include these here as there are several edible species that may remotley look like these.
Whilst there does exist a few recipes that use this species, it’s one of infinite boiling, soaking and processing in order to get this remotley useable. The leaves and berries are poisonous, however it is hard to ingest any quantity as even the tiniest amount will have your lips and toungue swell.
No part of this plant can be used.
The leaves are out at the same time as Wild Garlic, in the same spots, so caution is needed. The only other plant this may be confused with is Sorrel. The easy way to tell these two apart is the leaf shape. Sorrel has two backwards pointed lobes. Lords and ladies have two slightly rounded backward pointed lobes.
Very common throughout the British Isles with a drop in numbers throughout central Wales and the Highlands.
